Homepage Domain not Ranking, only subpages is?
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What do you think can be causing issues that my main homepage is not showing on search results for the main search terms, only my sub-pages are showing up like the reservations page.
ps. I did not get a manual penalty action email.
Thanks,
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Thanks guys, I have fixed the problem. and got the Root Domain back on the search results. The issue was over optimization and unnatural anchor text link profile.
We really appreciate the community for all the response.
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Hi there,
You have two good answers here already from Andy and Dennis. If possible, could you provide examples of the site and the terms for which the internal pages are ranking? Feel free to PM them to me if you would rather they not appear on the thread. This should help me look at whether the internal pages are just more relevant to the queries, or whether it's truly strange that the home page doesn't rank.
Cheers,
Jane
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Like Andy said, it's hard to really say without seeing it.
From my experience, it's usually just one of these:
1. The sub page is more relevant since your internal linking structure dictates that it is relevant to that keyword (plus your brand authority helps that page, even without links)
2. Something went wrong somewhere, in HTML problems, redirects and of course, overoptimised links (like a lot of domains with blogrolls pointing to the homepage) innocent looking links but they sometimes cause problems.
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Thanks for the Respond,
The Root Domain/ Homepage was ranking for the the main search term until Feb 9th, then after that the Sub Page was only ranking for the same search term.
1. There is no duplicate titles or pages.
2. The Homepage is indexed, as it still ranking for other search terms, and I also search in google site:www.mysite.com
and still there.
3. There are no canonical issues. everything is Redirect to the Https, and the Https was ranking as for couple months until Feb 9,
4. No duplicated through index.html, default.html
5. 70% of the links are point to the Homepage.
6. Our Anchor Text distribution has only branded keywords, city name and the website, there is no commercial keywords.Thanks
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There are so many possibilities for this.
Is the content on your sub pages, better matched to the search terms? Does the homepage say more about what you do in a generic way, or is it very targeted?
Do you have duplicate page Titles, or ones that are very similar? This can lead to keyword duplication (cannibalisation).
Is the homepage indexed by Google? It isn't excluded through the Robots file? Are there good links leading through to the sub pages, but the homepage is missing out?
Are there any canonical issues, or does your homepage get duplicated through index.html, default.html, etc.?
Sorry if these are vague, but there really are so many possibilities, it would be hard to guess without seeing it.
-Andy
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